CHRIS O’DOWD, star of TV’s The IT Crowd, chats about working with writer and actress Kristen Wiig and improvising on the set of his new movie BRIDESMAIDS.
MMM: Although there was a script, you were able to do a lot of improv on Bridesmaids. Have you worked that way much before?
O’Dowd: No, not really. It’s because Americans have so much more money! I’m being flippant in a way but the amount of time a bigger budget gives you does mean you can play an awful lot more. In IT Crowd we don’t improvise at all… very rarely. To be fair we do have a whole week’s rehearsal and shoot it all in one night, so you’ve got every idea already out on the floor.
People sometimes improvise for the sake of improvising because they like the idea of improvising, whereas what they’re actually doing is just taking away really good lines that were there in the first place.
What was great in Bridesmaids was that we got the script and we would do a little improv and Kristen is the best improviser I’ve ever worked with, so it’s kind of an amazing thing. Then we’d go back to the script and try and make it better using the bit of improv you’ve got rather than it being an either or. And the fluidity and naturalism you get by doing it that way really gives a kind of reality to it.
MMM: Have you suffered the romantic frustration your character suffers in this movie?
O’Dowd: Yeah, a lot of women being really unimpressed is something I grew up with and perfected and live with on a daily basis. No, every woman has always loved me. [Laughs]
MMM: How do you find being described as a sex symbol?
O’Dowd: Obviously my character in Bridesmaids is a very sweet guy and that’s all great. The sex symbol thing is so fleeting… if Jon Hamm had tried even 10 per cent to get the girl, he would have!
MMM: Now that Hollywood’s discovered you, are you still up for the next series of The IT Crowd?
O’Dowd: Yeah, if we can get it going, we’re talking about doing it at the end of the year or early next year… the last series.
